Excerpt
Prologue
The man stood at the foot of the bed and stared at the young woman who was lying there so still. She looked so small and vulnerable. Tears stung the back of his
Eyes, but there was no turning back now. The decision had been made. He dug his hands into his pockets and swallowed hard.
“I’ll send you money each month to help with expensive”
The older woman leaned over the girl and covered her with a colorful home made quilt, then gently smoothed the hair back from her face. She whirled to face the man.
“No, you won’t!” she whispered and pointed a finger at him, her eye narrowing. “If I take money from you, it will make me part of this whole sordid mess, and I’ll have none of it, you hear me? Now just go.” She curtly dismissed him and turned her attention back to the girl.
He hesitated for a moment, sparing the girl one final remorseful glance, then turned and quickly left the room.
The woman turned and followed him, closing the door quietly behind her. The girl would probably sleep through the night with the amount of medication she had given her.
“Never in my life did I think I would say that I was ashamed of you, but I am. I just pray to God, that you will come to your senses before it’s too late,” she said, her eyes filled with unshed tears.
“Will she be all right?” he asked, squirming under the woman’s steady gaze.
“Her body will heal, and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that her spirit does too. That you can count on.”
“We did what we thought was best for everyone concerned,” he said defensively. “Please, try to understand.”
“You just keep telling yourself that, then one day you’ll believe it.
I think you all had this planned, right from the beginning. Only you didn’t count on another life to contend with. Just remember one thing, the truth has a way of coming out just when you least expect it to.” Her eyes locked stubbornly with his. She smothered the urge to hurl something at him."
“Are you going to tell her?” he asked cautiously.
She looked away from him. “I don’t know…” Her voice trailed off.
The man sighed, briefly glanced down at the floor, then turned and left the house without another word. He did not look back as he closed the door behind him.
She returned to the bedroom and eased herself down to the rocking chair that was besides the bed. She moved as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake the girl. Tears blurred her vision. It the child woke up without anyone there, she would probably be scared, confused and full of questions.
She lifted a shawl from the arm of the chair and draped it around her shoulders to ward off the chill of the room. It was unusually cool for this time of year after a full day of rain. There were flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder as heavy sheets of rain pelted the windows.
She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. The hard work would begin tomorrow. What would she say to the girl? How could she ever tell her the truth and expect her to understand when she didn’t understand it herself? The woman prayed for divine guidance. “Lord, please, help me,” she whispered. “Give me the right words to say to her.” She would never have become a party to this whole thing if she had not feared for the girl’s life. She was far too young to have endured so much tragedy in her life.
The woman leaned back in the chair and messaged her temples with both hands. Her headache was back; this time it was more severe.
She knew that she should have seen a doctor about this problem weeks ago, but she had kept putting it off. At the moment she made a decision. Tomorrow when the girl woke up, she was going to tell her the truth. Every ugly detail, and support her with any action the girl wanted to take. What would happen to the child if something happened to her?
She stood up to go and get something for her headache, which was pounding now. Her vision was getting worse. The blurring she knew now was not because she had been crying. Her left hand felt numb. Her legs were wobbly, and unable to support her weight. She reached out for the bedpost, unable to utter a sound as she sank down to the floor and the darkness claimed her.
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